The Contact Sheet

Remember these? Sometimes I forget just how different the process of photography was when I was shooting on film. I subscribe to the French photography magazine Réponses Photo that (amongst many other things) has a regular feature each month where they ask a well known photographer to comment upon one of their contact sheets from a memorable shoot, for me it's always fascinating to see the process and narrative to the images which led up to the final 'keeper' image from the 36 exposures.
I had a rummage through my archive and found a contact sheet of my own that produced one of my favourite images. Having a look over the sheet made me realise that during this period I was very economical with my shooting. Perhaps shooting digitally with huge capacity memory cards has led me to become a bit more looser with my shooting than I was back then.
Shooting digitally also means that the non selected images from a shoot get immediately forgotten after the initial yes/no edit, where as with film and the contact sheet there is a permanent record of every exposure. I still supply contact sheets to clients but these are of my selected images from the shoot with all post production applied. One U.S photographer Chase Jarvis decided to share all his images, every single exposure, from five days of shooting and created a slideshow of them which can be seen here, this I guess being the closest thing to a 'digital contact sheet'. I wonder how many rolls of film that would have amounted to? Selected images from my contact sheet can be seen below and more of my black and white images shot on film can be seen on my main website here.
Click on contact sheet above to see much larger. Background details to shoot: Images taken at Speakers Corner, early 2000. Images taken with Pentax ME Super with 50mm prime lens. Shot on Ilford HP5 400 asa film stock and negatives developed with Agfa Rodinal developer, images printed on Ilford Multigrade resin coated paper

Recent Publication: Time Out magazine

The idea behind this shoot as discussed with the Picture desk was to try and give the impression of being in the countryside whilst still in the centre of London - also trying to include some visual clues in each frame as to the location of the shots. I was asked to go to Hampstead Heath and get lots of wide open shots showing the expanse of space and calm that is available to visitors. I knew that Parliament Hill offered a good view of London's iconic skyline and tried to use this as an element in a number of the shots. I had an idea that the chosen image would be run large in the magazine, the empty space in each frame suggested that the Art desk would run the copy in these areas. Although I must say I was very pleasantly surprised to see the image being used as a double page spread, always a bonus. More images from the shoot can be seen below:

Recent Shoot: Masterplan meeting

A Masterplan meeting in London by Atkins Engineering to discuss the development of the area surrounding the old Spode pottery factory in Stoke. The images were to be used in the document that would eventually be submitted to the local council planners. These meetings always make for good images with plans being drawn out off the cuff and ideas being discussed across the table, I arrived to find that due to the good weather it had been decided to hold the meeting outside which made a pleasant change

Recent Shoot: House of Commons construction industry terrace reception

A recent commission documenting a terrace reception held at the House of Commons for members of the construction industry for Building Magazine. I arrived early to the shoot with a view to getting some interior shots of the House of Commons on the way to being led onto the terrace where the reception was held, unfortunately the inner halls and corridors of the Commons are most definitely a 'no photography' zone as I was frequently reminded by the numerous (armed) police officers who patrol the inner sanctum of Parliament. I had to come away with something so I took one branded napkin from the buffet as a souvenir...

Recent Shoot: St Pancras International

Images here from a recent shoot for the London Communications Agency who take care of the P.R for St Pancras International Station in London. The brief was to show the well known icons of the station in a new and alternative light and also to document the everyday life of the terminal. As a person who has spent a lot of time over the years catching the Eurostar between London and Paris (also Lille and Brussels on the odd occasion) it was a job I thoroughly enjoyed completing